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Call For the Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery Deadline: 31 May 2011

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has issued a call for applications for the United Nations Trust Fund that allocates project grants for programmes of humanitarian, legal and financial assistance to individuals whose human rights have been severely violated as a result of contemporary forms of slavery.

Contemporary forms of slavery include chattel slavery, serfdom, forced labour, debt bondage, the worst forms of child labour, forced and early marriage and the sale of wives, trafficking of persons and human organs, sexual slavery, sale of children and children in armed conflicts, etc.

Projects undertaken with the Fund’s grants include medical, psychological, education and housing assistance aid for women and girls who are victims of forced marriages, vocational training to victims of human trafficking for sexual and economic exploitation; support to rehabilitation centers for sexually and physically abused street children and projects to identify and release bonded labourers in the agriculture, carpet and construction industries. Other projects have provided victims with the means to generate sustainable sources of income, such as sewing machines, hairdressing equipment, or farming tools.

The Fund is administrated by the Secretary General, who is advised by a Board of Trustees. The Board is composed of five persons with relevant experience in the field of human rights, and contemporary forms of slavery in particular, serving in their personal capacity. The members of the Board are appointed by the Secretary-General with due regard to equitable geographical distribution, for three-year, once renewable terms.